Inspired by Method

The publication Inspired by Method: Creative Tools for the Design Process is now available at Slanted Shop!

What is inspiration? Can there be a method for finding inspiration? Inspired by Method: Creative Tools for the Design Process is both a guide to and a source of inspiration. Designing involves individuality and a systematic approach, which we may apply consciously or subconsciously, depending on the project. The 5D-method for inspiration, created by Alexandra Martini, is an incisive little tool that you can use in any design process. It takes away the fear of starting a new project. This method uses the following five dimensions: Formal-Aesthetic Dimension, Haptic Dimension, Production Dimension, Cultural Dimension and Interactive Dimension. It will help you analyze, experiment with and realize your ideas. The first phase of the book will get you started.

The second phase encourages you to experiment and explore some unusual paths. Classical principles, such as composition and proportion, are interwoven with contemporary manufacturing processes such as 3D printing and aspects of human-machine interaction.

For all budding creatives who are involved with design, in any way, that want to deepen their knowledge and intellectual portfolio professionally and develop their design skills further. Inspired by Method: Creative Tools for the Design Process provides orientation, guidance, methodology, and a soft process algorithm.

Inspired by Method

Publisher: BIS Publishers
Author: Alexandra Martini
Language: English
Format: 22.4 × 18.7 cm
Volume: 240 pages
Bookbinding: Paperback
ISBN: 978 90 6369 573 6
Price: € 35.–
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approximation (clematis ascotiensis)

The distance between the physical experience of colour and its reproduction on a screen or on a printed page makes me often feel unsatisfied. Colour in real life is complex, three-dimensional, fleeting, unstable, reproduction is reductive and flat. In the attempt to overcome this gap, I’ve decided work through approximation, in its etymological sense, getting closer and closer to objects and capturing blurred samples with my cameraphone. This is where I tried to piece them together.

Colours Cluster – 0421

I was immediately intrigued by the option of having my work “printed in 1 color on a colored paper,” primarily for the fact that this process best lends itself to collaboration and ultimately results in a unique composition specific to this issue. My aim, therefore, was to submit a design capable of retaining certain intended formal qualities while simultaneously leaving others open to interpretation. With that in mind, I would prefer to leave the choice of ink and paper color entirely up to your discretion.

Colours Cluster – 0321

I was immediately intrigued by the option of having my work “printed in 1 color on a colored paper,” primarily for the fact that this process best lends itself to collaboration and ultimately results in a unique composition specific to this issue. My aim, therefore, was to submit a design capable of retaining certain intended formal qualities while simultaneously leaving others open to interpretation. With that in mind, I would prefer to leave the choice of ink and paper color entirely up to your discretion.

Fest Anča

Visual identity for animation festival. The visual reacts to the theme of the festival – propaganda. The poster with the portrait represents the festival logotype, which is a woman with a scarf called Anča (a typical Slovak name). The logotype is completed by other elements to quote the famous propaganda poster by Nina Vatolina. The film flag poster quotes the coat of arms of Slovakia. The poster with the number represents the year of the festival. For the accompanying event Game Days, I have created a stand-alone poster, its main elements are flags. The visual identity was made in bold colors in order to lighten the difficult theme of the festival.

Public Species

The publication connects the author’s photography and designer work. The photographic series is dedicated to public space and the ways how people design it. The design reacts to the theme with a reverse format of the book. The first way to read the book, half opening, represents a fast walk through the city. The second way, full opening, represents a slow walk and a more detailed observation of the city. The typefaces quote different time frames, layered in architecture and design of public space. The gloss used for the title quotes paints signs in the streets and on the photographs. The accompanying text is formatted into irregular paragraphs to evoke the spontaneity of urban structures.

Aus heutiger Sicht. Diskurse über Zukunft

Together with Anna Sukhova, GER. For the exhibition »From Today’s Perspective. Discourses on the Future« at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt/Main, we developed a visual identity. Emerging throughout the exhibition, the motifs create a surreal atmosphere. The graphic figures are on the brink of being object or subject, opening up the space for imagination.

Orange Strike, from the Serie Colourful Objects

The Colourful objects series attracts us particularly with specific material characteristics. Its rich texture, glossy surface and bright neon colors not only grab our attention and force to come closer and explore, but even mesmerize and tempt. The artwork derived its effect from elements peculiar to painting itself. It raises the desire to possess and, at the same time, question the seductive capability of abstraction.

A Euphoric State of Peacefulness

Colours have the power to influence mood and emotions. As simple as it sounds, vivid colours bring to mind a sense of pleasure and euphoria, while muted hues drives home the sense of calmness, peace and order. This juxtaposition of bright and pastel gradients shows the contrasting element of the colours it has people’s emotions.

Bright Eyes

Three basic colours and shapes of contrast. Like the first few colours we are taught to look at, the artwork represents the simple relationship among the colours, with the top shape looking like an iris and the bottom image representing the simplest form of colour mixing and combination.

Harmónia

An illustration I have made for the project Čierne diery (Black Holes). The project is focused on forgotten architectural monuments and interesting places in Slovakia. I have created for them an illustration of an abandoned socialistic building from famous Slovak architect Vladimír Dedeček. A part of it is a visual quote of a relief decoration of the building from painter Ivan Vychlopen. Printed on Risograph with soya bean colors.

House of Arts

An illustration I have made for the project Čierne diery (Black Holes). The project is focused on forgotten architectural monuments and interesting places in Slovakia. I have created for them an illustration of a house of culture from a famous Slovak architect Ferdinand Milučký. The modernist-brutalist architecture was realized in the 70s in Pieštany. The interior was made by the architect in cooperation with a designer Júlia Kunovská. I like their work with structures, patterns, and colors. I made a geometric illustration that involves simplified patterns and details from the interior and also the exterior shape of the building. Printed on Risograph with soya bean colors.

Modrá púpava

Visual identity and packaging design for a natural cosmetics brand Modrá púpava (Blue Dandelion). Design is dimensioned for small packaging. The identity responds to the established brand name with a playful color scheme. Colors create a system for categories and collections and help to navigate through the product range. Brown glass is the most suitable way to store cosmetics. The design works with author typeface Plastic completed by a logo of a dandelion seed. It is placed freely on the bottles as if it would be blown on by the wind. The rotation of the seed is also reflected in the composition of the typography. The boxes are folded without adhesives, the inside contains how to use tips.

Sweet Memories

Sweet Memories is a collection of my family’s story. Memories from my family’s and my country’s colonial past, where traditions, language and culture were destroyed. We forgot our language, we forgot our names, we forgot who we were.

The collection started on 22 March 2021 and will be published throughout the year. Like an old photo album, I will replenish this box of memories. Every day I will try to remember a part of my story.

Think of the collection as a metaphysical photo album, where each piece is a separate story. Which, while appearing vividly, fades away and dissolves like a memory.

SuperHi’s First Steps guides covers

Colors, shapes and grids have meaning at SuperHi. The considerate design system differentiates and brands each creative discipline of the online education platform. Vibrant, eye-catching and playful, these are the three covers of the First Steps Guides. The intent of these free downloadable guides is to introduce people to SuperHi’s three main skill pillars, in a way that’s approachable, real, fun and practical, with a lens on helping people make and use these skills, no matter what role or career path they have or wish to have.

Color Selector

Color Selector is a digital platform and tool that has just been launched. Curated and designed by Eugénie Garcia. The tool is dedicated to art directors, trend forecasters, designers, architects, and all the other people in the creative field.

Color Selector displays a palette of 70 colors that, along with sourcing images of creative and inspirational, reflects the creativity and passion for research of the inventor.

The colors are presented in a unique horizontal stacked layout and even include a useful bookmark function, as well as a filter index. The tool offers a large variety of color combinations, from basic colors to neons, pastels, vivid, and natural tints.

Color Selector

Curator & Designer: Eugénie Garcia
Explore the website to find the best colors and inspirational images for you

Call for applications

Posters and flyers for the conservatory of music and dance of Metz. Two versions have been imagined in order to differentiate the music section from the dance section. On the dance version (pink), the waves drawn for the visual represent the random movement of the bodies and on the music version (orange), they represent the rhythm orchestrated by the scores.

Poster: 297 x 420 mm / Munken print 150 g/m² / neon pink 813U + neon orange 804U + cooper 875U
Flyer: 148 x 210 mm / Munken print 300 g/m² / neon pink 813U + neon orange 804U + cooper 875U
Typefaces: Messine & Work Sans